Tuesday 29 September, 2009

Mother Jones pulls the plug on the dirty water so beloved of Greens and high society alike: Fiji. Newspapers might be losing brand value online but journalists only stand to gain, says Le Monde. Not the future but the present is the real inspiration, French sociologist Michel Maffesoli tells Clarin. In Espresso, mafioso Francesco Fonti explains why Aldo Moro's kidnapping made his boss so nervous. In Poets and Writers, literary agent Georges Borschardt points to the one thing that changed the publishing industry most: the short-term contract. read more

The new novel by Nobel laureate Herta Müller tells of a harrowing experience which will leave an indelible stamp on its survivor for the rest of his life. Her book stems from interviews with the poet Oskar Pastior and other Gulag survivors. An excerpt in English. read more

Tuesday 22 September, 2009

The New York Times reads Carl Jung's "Red Book" with a shudder. In La vie des Idees, Eric Hobsbawm wonders how to start a revolution. Merkur magazine calls for a return of the hero. Walrus describes a day in the life of Al Jazeera. In Nepszabadsag, the political scientist Csaba Gombar is so over "post"-isms. Polityka celebrates the poet Juliusz Slowacki. Al Ahram compiles a list of failed Arab states. read more

Wednesday 16 September, 2009

Charlotte Gainsbourg spent two months in Germany, either blood-spattered in a dark forest or sealed off in a sterile hotel. She talks to Martina Meister about discovering her limits during the filming of "Antichrist" by Danish director Lars von Trier. read more

Tuesday 15 September, 2009

In the Atlantic, Robert D. Kaplan explains why he prefers watching Al Jazeera to CNN or BBC. Mark Bowden heralds in the "post-journalistic" age. In Tygodnik Powszechny, stage director Jan Klata explains predatory capitalism using a hundred-year-old book. In Espresso, John Berger gets on his motorbike and rides. In Elet es Irodalom, the historian Miklos Mitrovits wishes the Russians would stop using WWII as an excuse to flex imperialist muscle. In the New York Times, Leon Wieseltier doesn't see why Jews should vote like Episcopalians. read more

Thursday 9 September, 2009

Tuesday 8 September, 2009

The New Yorker orders ceiling-high piles of boxes of shoes at Zappos. In Literaturen, Terezia Mora explains why the IT community is not interested in social climbing. In HVG, Agata Gordon explains why she'd rather be called homosocial than homosexual. The Guardian gets between the sheets with JM Coetzee. NZZ Folio sings the praises of the apprentice. The Chronicle of Higher Education is gobsmacked by Google's literary annus mirabilis of 1899. read more

Tuesday 1 September, 2009

Today, on the anniversary of the outbreak of WWII, Russia plans to unveil secret documents detailing Poland's involvement, the Observer reports. In Przekroi, Tomasz Lubienski praises Poland for its great and righteous behaviour in a critical moment. The British online magazine, spiked, is horrified by what passed for quality journalism in the Swedish paper, Aftonbladet. Human rights were shaped in Haiti, Le Monde remembers. Standpoint asks why the world reacted with fury to the oppression of blacks, but reacts with silence to the oppression of women. And Hungarians can be child murderers too, Magyar Narancs concludes. read more